Melbourne police officer delivers apology after
child sex abuse
A police officer has avoided a criminal conviction for child sexual abuse after making a public apology in court, with the text he sent her revealed.
A police officer took away a young girl’s trust and innocence after a years-long period of sexual abuse, a court has been told.
Conor McCurley, 26, appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, where he accepted responsibility for the offending.
In an emotional impact statement to the court, the woman, now in her early 20s, said her entire life changed as a result of Mr McCurley’s actions.
“I was left to hold the disgusting secret,” she said.
“I started to feel like I was the problem... I felt like I was losing control of my life.”
The court was told the woman confronted Mr McCurley years after the abuse ended, with the First Constable complaining he had been “painted in a horrible light”.
“It was a young ignorant boy’s mistake,” he responded to her via text message.
But the woman told the court what he described as a “mistake made me feel like it had cost most of my life”.
“I have been called vengeful and spiteful for seeking justice,” she said, her voice breaking.
“You’re taking a young man’s dream away, they say, yet I feel like my childhood was taken away.”
Mr McCurley sat behind his lawyer clutching a ream of paper, his wife's arm draped across his back.
The court was told he was suspended from Victoria Police without pay after internal investigators charged him in August last year – just weeks before his wedding.
The sexual offending occurred when Mr McCurley was a teenager and before he joined Victoria Police.
The case was initially set down for a committal hearing this week to determine if Mr McCurley should face trial after lawyer Caroline Salter last year said he denied the allegations.
But on Tuesday morning prosecutor Matthew Fisher rose to his feet to say the case “had resolved”.
He told the court both the prosecution and defence agreed the case was suitable for diversion, where a low-risk offender can avoid the criminal justice system by accepting responsibility for their actions.
“At first blush a member of the public may say it’s outrageous for it to be dealt with in this way,” he said.
“But we say there are powerful factors at play in reaching this position.”
Mr Fisher said both the woman and a senior crown prosecutor had agreed diversion was the right course of action.
After hearing from both parties, Magistrate Malcolm Thomas agreed, saying despite the serious offences he was of the view it was “appropriate to grant diversion”.
“In my view this allows (the complainant’s) voice to be heard, gives her agency and forces Mr McCurley to acknowledge his actions publicly,” he said.
Mr Thomas said a “powerful factor” in his decision was the woman’s support for diversion and for her to avoid the “deeply traumatic” experience of giving evidence at trial.
“It is an unfortunate feature of the system that requires complainants to describe in great detail... often the most painful memories in their life,” he said.
As part of the diversion, Mr McCauley was required to give a public apology, pay $7,500 in compensation, donate $2,500 to a charity of her choosing and be of good behaviour for a year.
Standing in the witness box on Tuesday afternoon, Mr McCurley kept his head low as he said he was “deeply sorry”.
“I know what I have done has caused irreversible damage,” he said.
“I want you to know I fully acknowledge my behaviour and how it made you feel.”
Requiring Mr McCurley to stand before the court, Mr Thomas described his behaviour toward the woman as “absolutely disgusting”.
“You should feel a great sense of shame for the things you did and you should carry that shame.”
It sounds to me like he was trying to excuse his behaviour because he was a teenager. A mistake is not something you make dozens or hundreds of times for years - that's a way of life. I hope he is worthy of this diversion, but I'm not convinced.
Former Camp Kieve counselor hit with more accusations of childhood sex abuse
One of the complaints claims Bill McCook abused a young boy at Camp Keive. The Nobleboro camp is also named a defendant in that case. Another civil action alleges McCook molested another boy on an overnight camping trip not connected to the camp.
That alleged victim wants justice under a state law that removed a time limit for civil claims and spoke with NEWS CENTER Maine.
Fighting back tears, one of the men, now in his late 50s, said he had carried a painful secret until now.
"I wanted him to know that I didn't forget, and I remembered. He traumatized me, and he hurt me," the man said, his voice cracking with emotion.
NEWS CENTER Maine is not naming the man, who spoke with us by phone.
According to this lawsuit, the plaintiff claims he was sexually abused multiple times by McCook.
The incident allegedly happened in the mid-1970s during an overnight camping trip to an island in Muscongus Bay, overseen by McCook, a well-known camp counselor. The man was only 9 or 10 years old at the time. He said those painful memories were triggered when the alleged victim saw McCook at his local grocery store decades later.
"Part of me wanted to confront him right there in the store, and shout to everybody would hear it what he had done," the alleged victim recalled.
He came forward after seeing media coverage of a lawsuit filed last year against McCook by another former camper, who claims McCook molested him at Camp Kieve, a wilderness camp on the banks of Damariscotta Lake. Legal complaints were made possible under a 2021 Maine law that did away with the time limits for victims of sexual abuse to seek justice in civil court.
Tim Kenlan represents the alleged victim and Michael Innis, who also filed a lawsuit alleging McCook sexually abused him during an overnight stay at Camp Kieve for Boys in Nobleboro in the summer of 1969. The Harpswell resident was a relative of McCook, who worked at the camp as a counselor. The nonprofit KWE, which runs the camp, is also named in the lawsuit.
"We believe that KWE failed to take reasonable steps to prevent a known abuser have access to children," Kenlan an attorney at Berman & Simons explained.
In an email to its community, KWE's board of trustees released the results of an independent investigation, saying McCook is a serial predator who sexually abused as many as 10 boys in the 1960s and 1970s. But the report said the camp did not take timely steps to sever ties with McCook.
Kenlan, though, does credit KWE for taking steps to better protect the community.
"They have taken a deep dive and looked at themselves in the past and said this is not right, we want to make this right," Kenlan added.
That includes adopting new staff standards to address any inappropriate or harmful behavior before it crosses the line into abuse.
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